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Saturday, 5 December 2015

Publishing and #diversedecember by Savita Kalhan

#diversedecember was launched on Twitter on the 1st of December to celebrate BAME, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, authors, and to highlight the continuing lack of diversity in
publishing.

I have blogged about the lack of diversity in children's literature here and blogged about how the States was tackling the very same problem - #weneeddiversebooksUK

I also blogged about Malorie Blackman and Bali Rai's call for more diversity in children's literature, and how the lack of diversity affected me when I was growing up - Black and White and Everything in Between

Rosie Canning and Lindsey Bamfield highlighted the lack of diversity and held a Diverse Author Day in September, which I blogged about - #diverseauthorday

Now, Nikesh Shukla has joined Jon McGregor in an attack slamming the elitism of an industry which “work[s] to perpetuate an environment in which their own sort feel at home."

On Twitter people have been sharing what they want to read this month
and recommending books. It's easier to do this with contemporary fiction
because there seem to be far fewer published books by BAME teen writers.

So, in
that spirit, I'll be reading these two great new books published this year by BAME
teen/YA authors:

The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo by Catherine
Johnson

13 Hours by Narinder Dhami

Please add any book recommendations in the comments below.

I'll also be reading these adult fiction books:

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

The Private Life of Mrs Sharma by Ratika Kapur

A Restless Wind by Sharukh Husain

Nosy Crow has announced that they would like to
support #diversedecember. So if there are any BAME authors out there, now is
your chance to submit. Check out the submission guidelines first here - Nosy Crow

Tom from Nosy Crow said, "Today we’re announcing an open call for children’s fiction submissions from debut BAME writers. I think that it’s incredibly important that our
industry represents a wide range of voices, not only so that children from
every background can recognise their own lives and experiences in the books
that they read, but also simply to enrich the body of children’s literature
that we publish, by moving out of a monoculture and embracing a wider world of
ideas."

Nikesh Shukla is also compiling an anthology of essays by BAME authors, The Good Immigrant, fifteen writers who will be exploring what it means to be Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic in the UK today. He is looking for funding - here's the link if you'd like to pledge - UNBOUND
J K Rowling has just pledged £5K.

You can follow #diversedecember on Twitter for more book recommendations and news.